Diabetes is a very serious disease in our community. It strikes Latinos more often than non-Hispanic whites, according to the Office of Minority Health, and we are 1.5 times more likely to die from the ailment. But now there may be a new cure coming for diabetes: the artificial pancreas.
The device was just successfully tested on 12-year-old Elle Shaheen, where a "bionic" pancreas recorded her blood sugar level automatically and adjusted her insulin accordingly. The device was designed to catch dangerously high or low blood sugar and treat it, giving Elle's mom Stefany a sigh of relief.
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The New Jersey mom says that it's the first time she didn't have to set her alarm to wake up every three hours at night to check on her daughter because "for the first time since she was diagnosed, I didn't have to worry." If you could stop worry about your kid's, your husband's or your own diabetes thanks to an artificial pancreas, wouldn't you want to?
Currently, the study and testing of the artificial pancreas is undergoing baby steps. Doctors fitted Elle for the artificial pancreas in January and recently met with the FDA to show them a prototype for the artificial pancreas, hoping that testing on adult diabetic patients can begin by the Fall.
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Although a healthier lifestyle has been proven to reduce diabetes, that is not always an option for everyone. With as prevalent as diabetes is in the Latino community, this may actually be the next best thing to cure it.
If you or a family member suffers from diabetes, would you want to get the artificial pancreas?
Image via CNN
